PORTIER, PAUL

(b. Bar-sur-Seine, France, 22 May 1866; d. Bourg-la-Reine, France, 26 January 1962)biology, physiology.

Portier came from a family that traditionally served in the national bureaucracy. When he was in his early twenties, he succeeded in a competitive examination, and was offered a career in the Ministry of Finance. He had, however, been deeply interested in biology since he was a child, and his family decided to allow him to follow his own inclination, provided that he first study medicine. Portier received the M.D. and the degree of docteur ès sciences from the University of Paris, having worked there under Albert Dastre, who held the chair of general physiology. His own chief work was directed to comparative physiology, and a chair of that subject was established for him in 1923. He was also the director of the Institut Océanographique, and as such supervised more than 100 doctoral dissertations.

Portier’s chief discovery grew out of his interest in marine biology. He was a regular member of the scientific staff that accompanied Albert I of Monaco on his summer oceanographic voyages on the Princesse Alice II. July 1901 Portier and a fellow physiologist, Charles Richet, professor at the Paris Faculty of Medicine, undertook the study of the nature of the contact toxin secreted by coelenterates. An abundant catch of Physalia was brought on board off the Cape Verde Islands, and Portier and Richet ground up some of the specimens with sand and seawater. They filtered the mixture, then injected the resulting fluid into pigeons and guinea pigs, which soon fell into a state of profound anesthesia. Portier and Richet then determined to investigate whether an immunity might be produced by the injection of repeated doses of the toxin at long intervals; since such long-term experimentation could not be performed at sea, they decided to resume their work in Paris.

In their second series of experiments they injected a toxin derived from Actinia into dogs. Rather than becoming immune, the animals became sensitized to the toxin with repeated injections, and the toxic symptoms increased. In the most dramatic instance, a dog named Neptune received a weak injection that produced no effect; three days later the dose was repeated, again with no visible result. Three weeks later, however, Neptune had become hypersensitized to the degree that a third injection of the weak toxin caused him to collapse and die in a state of severe shock. Portier and Richet named this negative immunization “anaphylaxis” and by their experiment opened the new field of allergy studies. The scientific community only gradually realized that Portier had had a most significant role in this major discovery. Almost sixty years later, in 1958, Professor Portier received a special homage from the Third International Congress of Allergology in his old laboratory.

Portier also made numerous contributions to marine biology. He was the first to show that the spout of a blowing marine animal is visible because of the condensation of water vapor contained in the expelled air, the cooling brought about by the expansion of that air being always sufficient to produce condensation. From 1909 he investigated the physiological role of surface tension in aquatic insects. As early as 1922 he showed, in a collaborative work, that the milieu intérieur of fishes–which he had made the subject of extensive study–varies with exterior water pressure and salinity. His interest extended to marine birds, and in 1934 Portier demonstrated that the death of birds that have become covered with oil from spillage on the surface of the sea is the result of the loss of heat due to their oil-impregnated feathers.

In studies related to his practice of medicine, Portier showed that artificial respiration must be accompanied by warming the bulbar region, so as to reactivate the respiratory center. In biochemical studies, he insisted that carbon dioxide was necessary to synthetic and regenerative processes, a conclusion that was demonstrated experimentally thirty years later. Old age did not diminish his scientific activities, and when he was in his eighties he published a large treatise on butterflies, bringing together the results of lifelong observations on one of his favorite subjects. He was for many years an active member of the Academy of Medicine and of the Academy of Sciences.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Portier’s earlier writings include “Sur les effets physiologiques du poison des filaments pêcheurs et des tentacules des coelentérés (hypnotoxine),” in Comptes rendus . . . de l’ Académie des sciences, 134 (1902), 247–248, written with C. Richet, also in Travaux du Laboratoire de Charles Richet, 5 (1902), 506; “De l’action anaphylactique de certains venins,” in Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie, 54 (1902), 170–172, written with Richet, also in Travaux du laboratoire de Charles Richet, loc. cit.; “Nouveaux faits d–anaphylaxie ou sensibilisation aux venins par doses réitérées,” in Comtes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie, 54 (1902), 548–551, written with Richet; also in Travaux du laboratoire de Charles Richet, 5 (1902), 510; “Études sur la respiration. Mécanisme qui s’oppose à la pénétration de l’eau dans le système trachéen,” in Comptes rendus des séances de la Société de biologie, 66 (1909), 422–424; “Généralité du mécanisme de fermeture de l’appareil trachéen,” ibid., 452–454; “Action des corps gras sur l’appareil stigmatique. Mécanisme de la lutte des larves aquatiques contre les phénomènes d’asphyxie.” ibid., 496–499; “Sort des corps gras introduits dans les trachées. Conséquences touchant le mode d’infection des insectes aquatiques et les procédés de destruction de ces animaux,” ibid., 580–582; and Recherches physiologiques sur les insectes aquatiques (Paris, 1911).

Later works are “Variation de la pression osmotique du sang des poissons téléostéens d’eau douce sous I’influence de l’accroissement de salinité de l’eau ambiante,” in Comptes rendus . . . de l’Académie des sciences, 174 (1922), 1366–1368, written with Marcel Duval; “Variation de la pression osmotique du sang des sélaciens sous l’influence de la modification de salinité de l’eau environnante,” ibid., 1493–1495, written with Duval; “Variation de la pression osmotique du sang de l’anguille en fonction des modifications de la salinité du milieu extérieur,” ibid.175 (1922), 324–326, written with Duval; “Pression osmolique du sang de l’anguille essuyée en fonction des modifications de la salinité du milieu extérieur,” ibid. 1105, written with Duval; “Role physiologique du gaz carbonique. Son intervention dans les phénomènes de synthèse et de régénération,” in Bulletin de l’Académie de médecine, 100 (1928), 1274; and “La biologie des lepidoptères,” in Encyclopédie biologique (Paris, 1949).

II. Secondary Literature. For discussion of Portier and his work see M. Fontaine’s obituary in Bulletin de la Société scicntifique d’hygiène alimentaire,50 (1962), 75–76; M. Fontaine, “La découverte de l’anaphylaxie,” in Bulletin de l’Institut océanographique,997 (1951), 1–9; and Léon Binet, “Mon laboratoire de la faculté et ses souvenirs,” in Biologie médicale, 58 (1962), 443–480.

A. M. Monnier